95Honda

^^ No. Your ears are your best friend...

Also, please don't take my views as a simple bash on the guy doing the test. I am only basing my opinion on experience. I just finished up a 2 year tenure here: www.afotec.af.mil I was a suitability evaluator. Basically, I evaluated electronic systems for the military. I used extensive amounts of test equipment and completed objective test reports on military space assets, in other words, I know what I am doing. This is why I have a tough time with a lot of "car audio" tests...

The gains at any position is absolutely fine...

Model and look at response. If there isn't a huge difference, just get whichever one you can get a better deal on...

Testing not done in accordance with manufacturer specification, un-calibrated cheap test equipment, questionable load (I couldn't see it)... I have never tested any IA equipment so I cannot comment on their quality. What I can comment on is a meaningless test. This is the problem with the mobile audio world...

This will be a good chance for you to use the skills you have learned here. Carefully measure the enclosure dimensions and model it with your driver. -Find out what the vent velocity will be. -Actually verify the tuning. You have no idea if it was even designed right in the first place... Here is your chance to do this right...

I doubt you will get much feedback on a transmission line or horn, they are hardly ever used in mobile applications... Your best bet for the bandpass alignments will be to model the driver, most impressions you are going to get will be subjective...

That is the advantage if you pick them up at AAFES, if you aren't happy, just take them back... I would also see if they can get anything besides Optima, you never know what they will order in...

Don't ever, ever design an enclosure to "handle" a certain amount of power, especially by making it smaller. You loose efficiency, increase compression and decrease bandwidth. It never makes anything louder, you may think so, people may swear to it, but they are wrong. Design the enclosure with your response goals in mind and your available space. The power is the last thing you figure out, because you may not actually know how much power you need to get full output from your alignment until your enclosure is complete. Additionally, except in DSS's case, RMS has nothing to do with power requirements. It is a thermal rating. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH POWER REQUIREMENTS. IT IS A THERMAL RATING ONLY. It is only a thermal rating.

Optimas are one of the best batteries out there. If you hear a bad review from someone who does an objective test I would listen, to everyone else, I would not. Look at every large diesel generator we run in the AOR... Almost all Optima starting batteries...

That isn't too bad I guess. Have you checked the BX/PX? They sell Optima and can get many others, there is no shipping charges if they order them, either... Pair of Optima batteries would be cheap, and it is AAFES, so you could just bring them back if it doesn't work out and get all your money back...

Try to stay below 20 m/sec, which should be easy, even around tuning. And honestly, you probably will be fine, in a car, with higher velocity...

OK, model with that amount of power, Shoot for low enough vent velocity. It won't be too tough to get a slot port in a box that big, 30Hz isn't really too low at all...

How much are they going to cost?

There is no rule of thumb, especially if you don't know the power you will be applying to the driver. Have you modeled yet to see the difference between the two boxes? You should really do that before cutting any wood. And if you do indeed end up with an 8 cubic foot box, that is big, you should have no problem with an adequate vent for a single 18" driver...

Seriously, if you are going to be a prick about everything you won't last on this forum. Please take this as a warning.

Reading comprehension? Seriously? Bro you are talking to a couple of guys with engineering degrees. We are trying to help. Narrow your question down, don't be a smartass and we will try and help. Post a bunch of garbage and you will won't get much help...

In this case, advice falling on deaf ears is two-fold... OP: Hook all your stuff up, if it sounds good to you, go with it...

I would also sell the 3-way and buy a high quality mid-bass and tweeter if you are going active... If you don't have an 8" or larger driver, there is no reason for 3-way, pretty much most of the time...

Objectivity is out the window with most car audio... People who don't understand what is actually going on perpetuate all this BS.

The RMS rating of the drivers has nothing to do with output or matching, at all... I would start simple with a single 2-way up front. Get that right and move on from there. I wouldn't even mess with the sub stage until you get the 2-way sounding right...

.9 total Q is A-OK for IB...

The last time I built a bandpass that was large in a car was in a Mazda B2200 almost 20 years ago. It was a blow-through with a pair of 15's that had such a huge VAS the box ended up being almost 10ft3... That is back when they made sense.... The woofers didn't have much stroke then either, so you could get away with smaller ports... There just isn't enough reasons to make bandpass boxes a viable alternative most of the time now. There is just so many more things that can go wrong. The last successful one I built was for pro-audio, and only because I needed 40-60Hz, and that was it....

Use ship it APO, you can get anything that way. I used a Hifonics Collosus in 1997... It was expensive. I also used Rockford Power 1000 mosfets in the early 90's... They were $2K each... Not even close in price/performance like today...

Good looking subs!